Trump the Mad King, Continued

As is often the case these days, cult leader, convicted felon, and failed President Donald Trump spent the night posting controversial "truths" on his Truth Social social media network. Trump appears determined to completely dismantle the NATO alliance and alienate our closest European allies. Once again, both American and European elites appear more interested in appeasing Trump rather than confronting him as the mad king that he is. However, there are indications that the Europeans, at least, are reaching the end of their patience.

Trump started the night off by "truthing" that during a telephone call with Mark Rutte, Secretary General of NATO, Trump agreed to meet with "the various parties" in Davos, Switzerland, where Trump will be tomorrow. Trump reiterated his demand that Greenland remained an "imperative for National and World Security." Rutte, you may recall, last June referred to Trump as “Daddy," which, as I wrote at the time, set off a wave of Republicans referring to Trump as "Daddy." In the neo-royalism theory being advanced by Stacie E. Goddard and Abraham Newman, the driving goals of Trump's behavior are dominance and extraction. Essentially, Trump wants to force others into subservient positions from which he can extract material tributes. Rutte has been more than willing to assume a submissive posture before Trump. Hours after "truthing" about the phone call with Rutte, Trump posted a text that Rutte had sent him. The text said:

Mr. President, dear Donald - what you accomplished in Syria today is incredible. I will use my media engagements in Davos to highlight your work there, in Gaza, and in Ukraine. I am committed to finding a way forward on Greenland. Can't wait to see you. Yours, Mark

I am not sure why anyone still believes that this sort of obsequiousness will get them anywhere with Trump. It is a sign of weakness which Trump is quick to exploit, as he has done to Rutte by publishing this text.

Just after "truthing" about the Rutte phone call, Trump posted a similar text from French President Emmanuel Macron. Macron's text read:

From président Macron to President Trump

My friend,

We are totally in line on Syria We can do great things on Iran I do not understand what you are doing on Greenland Let us try to build great things: 1) i can set up a g7 meeting after Davos in Paris on thursday afternoon. I can invite the ukrainians, the danish, the syrians and the russians in the margins 2) let us have a dinner together in Paris together on thursday before you go back to the us

Emmanuel

It is not clear what Trump was hoping to accomplish by publishing the text other than to perhaps embarrass Macron. Soon afterwards, Trump threatened to place 200 percent tariffs on French wine and Champagne if Macron does not join Trump's "Board of Peace," something that Macron has already refused to do. Again, Trump's strategy appears to simply bully our allies into submission.

Trump then "truthed" two artificial intelligence-generated photos. The first depicted a meeting in the Oval Office with a map displaying both Canada and Greenland incorporated into the United States. The second displayed Trump planting an American flag in Greenland in front of a sign saying "GREENLAND — US TERRITORY EST. 2026." Trump and his defenders may well say that these photos are nothing more than trolling, but they convey territorial designs that Trump has frequently repeated. They will probably not be viewed as being very funny in either Canada or Greenland. The second one touches on an issue that is fairly important to the Greenland discussion. While Trump wants to acquire Greenland by one method or another, there do not appear to be plans to make Greenland a state. Rather, it would be a U.S. territory and its inhabitants may not even be granted U.S. citizenship. They certainly would not have the full rights of U.S. citizens. It is no surprise that Greenlanders are not eager to give up the rights and benefits they currently receive to become second-class residents of a U.S. territory.

Trump then "truthed" what was probably the most shocking post of the early morning, coming at 1:38 a.m. This was a criticism of a treaty the United Kingdom had recently made regarding the Chagos Islands. The text of the "truth" was:

Shockingly, our “brilliant” NATO Ally, the United Kingdom, is currently planning to give away the Island of Diego Garcia, the site of a vital U.S. Military Base, to Mauritius, and to do so FOR NO REASON WHATSOEVER. There is no doubt that China and Russia have noticed this act of total weakness. These are International Powers who only recognize STRENGTH, which is why the United States of America, under my leadership, is now, after only one year, respected like never before. The UK giving away extremely important land is an act of GREAT STUPIDITY, and is another in a very long line of National Security reasons why Greenland has to be acquired. Denmark and its European Allies have to DO THE RIGHT THING. Thank you for your attention to this matter. PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP

The background to this is that an archipelago of small islands off the coast of Mauritius, referred to as the Chagos Islands, has been administered by Britain since 1810. Of particular interest among these islands is Diego Garcia. In 1966, the United Kingdom agreed to allow the United States to use Diego Garcia for military purposes. The island is now the site of a large U.S. naval base. Mauritius has consistently contended that it should have sovereignty over the islands and pursued its claims in various international tribunals, winning several cases. As a result of the international legal proceedings, the United Kingdom agreed to return sovereignty to Mauritius, and in May 2025, the UK signed an agreement to transfer sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius. However, Diego Garcia was immediately leased back to the UK for a period of 99 years. Therefore, the U.S. base will not be affected.

At the time the agreement was signed, it was welcomed by the United States. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued a statement saying, "Today, the United States welcomed the historic agreement between the United Kingdom and the Republic of Mauritius on the future of the British Indian Ocean Territory—specifically, the Chagos Archipelago." The statement went on to say that "the Trump Administration determined that this agreement secures the long-term, stable, and effective operation of the joint U.S.-UK military facility at Diego Garcia."

Within the UK, however, the treaty was very controversial. The Conservative and Reform parties were extremely critical of British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and his Labour Party. Trump's "truth" has completely pulled the rug out from under Starmer, and the opposition parties are absolutely gleeful. Priti Patel, the Conservative Party member who serves as shadow foreign secretary, said, "President Trump has said what we’ve said all along – Labour’s £35bn Chagos surrender is a bad deal for Britain and bad for our national security." Reform UK party leader Nigel Farage stated that "Thank goodness Trump has vetoed the surrender of the Chagos islands." The irony, of course, is that Starmer has been among the most deferential of leaders when it comes to Trump. In the face of European anger over Trump's posture towards Greenland and recently announced punitive tariffs, Starmer has repeatedly urged everyone to remain calm and advised against retaliating for the tariffs. Once again, showing weakness to Trump gets you nothing.

There are indications, however, that the Europeans are learning that appeasement does not work with Trump. Today, the Prime Minister of Greenland said that the island's residents should start preparing for a possible military invasion. Also today, at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said that the bargain that had been made in return for the benefits of American hegemony in international trade, finance, and defense no longer works. He said that we are "in the midst of a rupture, not a transition." Who would have imagined that we would ever been this close to a severe disruption of relations with Canada?

Also at Davos, Belgium’s Bart De Wever was even more blunt. In an absolutely remarkable statement, he said:

Until now, we tried to appease the new president in the White House. We were very lenient, also with the tariffs. We were lenient hoping to get his support for the Ukraine war. … But now so many red lines are being crossed that you have the choice between your self-respect. Being a happy vassal is one thing. Being a miserable slave is something else.

If you back down now you’re going to lose your dignity. And that’s probably the most precious thing you can have in a democracy.

De Wever went on to say that:

We either stand together or we will stand divided, and if we are divided, there is the end of an era, of 80 years of atlanticism, really drawing to a close.

He is absolutely contemplating the possibility of the end of NATO and cooperation across the Atlantic. This is where Trump has brought us.

One would think that this would be a five-alarm fire among U.S. political leaders. But they remain so cowed by Trump as to be almost helpless. U.S. Senator Thom Tillis, for instance, a Republican who is retiring, still could not bring himself to criticize Trump. Instead, he told CNBC that "I'm not critical of the president. I'm critical of the bad advice he's getting on Greenland." Asked if he would support impeaching Trump if he invaded Greenland militarily, Tillis responded that "I'm not going to go to impeachment. Let's say it was a kinetic action -- I'd immediately go for a War Powers resolution." Seriously? If Trump launches an illegal war that shatters NATO and destroys our relationship with Europe, your solution will be to let him continue for 60 days? That's your solution?

As I wrote yesterday, Trump wrote a letter that was distributed to several European leaders in which he explicitly linked his interest in acquiring Greenland to his failure to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Despite this clear statement, Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent wants us to ignore what we all can see, saying that "I think it's a complete canard that there's any kind of an equivalence with the Nobel Prize." Bessent is begging for the Europeans to continue to kowtow to Trump, saying, "Everyone take a deep breath. Do not escalate. Do not escalate."

Tillis and Bessent are part of the problem. They are so fearful of confronting the mad king Trump that they are going to enable him to seriously harm the United States. To be clear, Europe is not without options when it comes to punishing the United States. As Carney demonstrated in his speech, he no longer sees a benefit in being aligned with our country. He recently concluded a trade deal with China and is clearly planning to reduce Canada's dependence on the United States. The U.S. relies on foreign countries to finance its national debt, a debt that Trump has massively increased both times he was in office. Today, the Danish pension fund AkademikerPension announced that it will sell off its holdings of U.S. Treasuries, valued at $100 million. While this is claimed to be a financial rather than a political move, the timing couldn't be clearer. If foreign interests divest or refuse to purchase Treasury bonds, financing our national debt will become significantly more expensive. This will have extremely negative economic consequences for Americans. It is no surprise that the stock market is down today.

Trump is a mad king bent on destroying key components of America's strength. If he is not stopped, Trump will demolish our North Atlantic alliance and relations with our European allies. Even Canada is ready to distance itself from Trump's United States. American elites have deluded themselves into believing that they can appease Trump. European leaders, who once held the same belief, are now coming to realize that this is a failed strategy. Some of Trump's chickens are probably going to start coming home to roost, and Americans will unfortunately suffer.